Like many an urban gardener, I’ve had a romantic notion or two about chickens. The appeal of fresh eggs every morning, the quiet cackle of contented hens with names like Henrietta picking the fat hormworms off my tomato plants — ah, urban garden bliss.

With the recently passed ordinances legally outlining how chickens may be kept in Chatham County, more and more gardeners are likely to succumb to the chicken-raising way of life. And some of those chicken newbies are probably dog owners, too.

Before the ordinances, I found myself in a romantic triangle where the vertices consisted of a half dozen fuzzy chicks of various origins, a goofy Australian Sheppard named Fred and my egg-loving self.

The chicks came home from the feed and seed store at about 3 inches tall — all sweetness and yellow fuzz. For weeks they thrived in their small outdoor pen, an old igloo-styled dog house as their shelter, with Fred passively watching. What a fine chicken guard dog — no neighborhood raccoon dared bother our backyard brood.

But, like most romantic triangles, this blissful period was destined not to last.

A week of cold rainy weather forced me to bring the chickens into the garage for additional protection from the elements. I transferred them into a large plastic dog airline crate and changed their litter each day. About four cold drizzly days into this routine, in mid-litter change, one of the chicks made a break for it. She hopped out of the crate, onto the table and onto the floor where Fred grabbed it in a split second.

In one of those suspended animation moments, Fred, the chick legs dangling and kicking out of his mouth, looked at me in total surprise and I looked at him. He gulped, the legs disappeared and I broke into laughter. Fred smiled as if to say, “Wow mom, what a great treat, can I have another?”

Later that day, I handed the remaining five chicks over to a chicken-raising friend. To me, now that Fred had a taste, he was likely to move from passive chicken guard to gourmet. Yes, perhaps I could have trained Fred not to eat the remaining chicks, but I decided I loved him more than fresh eggs.

I did a casual survey of chicken and dog owning members of the Savannah Urban Garden Alliance and found a full range of chicken-dog relationships. Tess Marine lets her four chickens and two dogs free range around her downtown garden. She says they often peck and sniff around together. Alaska Seed said her chickens were terrified of her German Shepherds but fine with her Golden Retrievers. And Rebecca Jackson Carey said her dog is terrified of her six chickens after one of the birds pecked the dog on the nose.

Marine described her successful dog-to-chicken introduction method like this: “I just introduced my dogs one at a time to my flock, let them sniff the chickens and the coop. I made sure that they were calm. As long as they were calm and the chickens were calm I didn’t interrupt. If they got excited I would have them sit at a distance and watch until they were relaxed again. I did this until the dogs got bored and focused on something else. After a few days they were desensitized and ignored the chickens for the most part.’’

Adding a good “leave it” command to your dog’s vocabulary will give you greater control during those moments when dogs and chickens come face to face, said Bob Olson, regional trainer for PetsMart.

“Leave It” is taught in increments (called shaping), where the dog learns to not only leave things alone they are not supposed to have, like chickens, but also to walk away from it, Olson said. It is one of the basic cues taught in all of PetsMart basic puppy and beginner training classes, and is relatively easy to train a dog to do, he added.

Marine is certainly on the right track with getting her dogs to remain calm in the face of chicken stimulation. With consistent practice, repetition and rewards for leaving something alone, the dog will eventually learn that “Leave It” means “you can’t have it,” and “you’ll be rewarded for leaving it alone,” Olson said. The idea is to get the dog looking and keep him looking at the person rather than the chicken.

If I had had a good “Leave It” on Fred, I may have been able to keep my chickens and been enjoying fresh eggs this morning.

Gail Krueger writes the Savannah Weeder column and about her other passion, pets. Send her an email at savannahweeder@yahoo.com.

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for
following agreed-upon rules of civility. Posts and
comments do not reflect the views of this site. Posts and comments are
automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some
comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules,
click the "Flag as offensive" link below the comment.